Kazungula Bridge: Bridging the Regional Divide

Context

A key road and rail bridge crossing over the Zambezi River along the North – South Corridor, a key trade route linking the port of Durban in South Africa to the inland countries of Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, DRC, and up to Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania.

Addressing a Gap

For years ferries were used to cross the river. It took transporters more than 8 days at times to navigate, impacting negatively on trade. The AfDB has played a crucial role in making this key bridge construction happen, financing feasibility and design work, supporting institutional capacity at SADC Secretariat for its project management, co-financing with JICA the construction work, mobilising additional resources for trade facilitation component.

In addition, as the North-South Corridor is one of the PIDA Priority Action Plan (PAP) projects and is one of the projects being politically championed by President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, under the AU endorsed Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative (PICI).

This project is also a perfect example of how an LICs and a MIC, both landlocked, can interconnect for the benefit of a wider region in the hinterland.

ADF Financing

The total project cost is UA 162.06 million (approximately US$ 259.3 million), funded through a co-financing arrangement with JICA. The Bank covers UA 51 million from the ADF window . The balance is shared between JICA (57.5%), Governments (9.2%) and EU-ITF Grant (1.8%).